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When we cut in half the metal shed that stoerd the milled lumber from out trees,(now that it’s all used up), one section went to storing firewood and the other half went to storing Dozy. But now Dozy (our little bulldozer), has to share the space with a small but usable shop space.

We added a partial wall and a door and window (all salvaged) to keep the elements at bay.I’m trying to figure out a way to make a door large enought for Dozy to get through so for now, a tarp will do. The LED lights you see in the first picture are powered by a battery charged by the solar panel on the roof. For now, Dozy has to stay outside as we have set up a workspace to build the concrete bathroom vanity counter. More on that later.

Well we made it through a wedding, holiday festivities and the new year. So here is a recap of some of the things we have done in the past two months. We put in pine T&G boards in the Master Bathroom (matching what’s in the M. Bedroom) Which is a wonderful background for my fathers watercolor painting. And further reflected in our beautiful round mirror…Jeff and I recieved some (not your normal) wedding presents. Three of which you can see in this picture.A door for our pantry (I am staining to match our other doors), a new fridge and a dresser.Here Jeff is putting a clear coat on the dresser.

And now the new pantry door is installed.Our latest project is the Master Bath vanity. We have put together the base. (got to love IKEA!)I am excited about attempting to make a concrete countertop. This will be and interesting project. And an opportunity to learn something new.

Jeff and I have been partnered for nearly 24 years. It is a true test of a relationship spending nearly 6 years in a leaky trailer while building our dream home in the hill. Not to mention all the monumental challenges of taking on such a project. Though our house is not yet finished (is any house building project ever finished?), we were able to fulfill another dream.. And that was to be able to be married (legally as a same sex couple), in our own amazing house. Circumstances were a bit last minute but with my mother and two brothers and my son visiting for Thanksgiving we decided to tie the proverbial knot.

Wednesday, November 26 with a few dear friends and family in attendance, the rainy skies cleared and gave us a glorious day for the event.We are sorry that more friends and family couldn’t attend but we will make up for that when we host a huge “Anniversary” party in April of 2016 which will mark Jeff and I being together for 25 years. Everyone’s invited!

With the tile on the floor done, we worked our way up the wall (behind vanity & toilet)Because of the height of our wall and the dimensions of the tiles, we were left with about a 7 1/2″ strip near the top. Rather than “rip” a bunch of tile, we decided to add an accent strip of small basalt rocks. These are the same mosaic stone tiles that we will be using in the walk-in shower so it ties it all together nicely. We found gouting these stones and the vertical tiles to be a bit of a challenge…And rather messy…But I think you will agree, the results are rather spectacular.

The Toilet is back installed (just in time for more guests). We are going to be making our own concrete vanity countertop but not until my bum shoulder heals. So it’s a functional laundry sink for now. Any professional tile setters out there? Building a custom shower pan for our walk-in shower is just a bit beyond my comfort zone.

One of the great features of our master bathroom is under floor heating. We are using the Schluter Dietra Heat system. This consists of an uncoupling membrane (The orange dimpled mat). The dimples hold in the electric heating wires while protecting them from damage.

And then comes the tile.

Opps, I guess I got myself stuck into a corner.:-)These beautiful large format tiles will continue up the wall behind the toilet and vanity. There will also be a line of small river rock going across the wall.

Looks like we are getting a few days of nice weather so finally the stucco guys can finish up. With all the windows and doors protected the spraying fun began. It is quite a transformation.

We are very pleased with the color and so glad that it is finally done. It was beginning to look like our house might have to be surrounded by scaffolding until next summer. This break in the weather is just what we needed. I think you will agree, the result is pretty spectacular.

We have this interesting niche space between the pantry and the water heater housing, lots of neat curves, shapes and shadows. With the built-in bookshelf there is space for our cookbooks. Then with the $20 Habitat ReStore 3 drawer cabinet installed, we now have a place to keep paperwork and charge phones (notice the integrated charger and outlet), and of course the requisite junk drawer. We also installed this cool LED wall sconce to light up the space.

Cody & his crew from Hiestands Plastering showed up and set up scaffolding in preparation for our exterior stucco. There is a lot of prep work involved, including taping off the windows and applying a base coat with a fiberglass mesh.Even with just the base coat, the exterior is looking great. Just wait till you see the color stucco we picked. Unfortunately there is a big rainstorm on its way so the stucco guys will have to return to finish when we get a dry spell in the weather….Stay tuned.

In preparation for the exterior stucco, we need to create a sloped curb at the base of the footings. (for drainage) This is requiring a lot of mortar but we were able to take up some of the “space” with bricks.Now we have a nice sloping curb on the three exposed sides of our house. We are ready for the Stucco guys now. The Stucco will extend down the wall and over the curb. For the time being, the steel arches will remain exposed. So Jeff braved the ladder and painted them. Unfortunately this is the last big project that I can work on for a while. I have suffered a shoulder injury which will take months to heal. So I can’t really do any heavy work that requires the use of my right arm. Fortunately, our guest accommodations are ready (enough) for visitors. In fact we have had two already.

With much of the plastering done in the master bathroom (and paint) we were able to set up some “temporary” fixtures.We now have a serviceable second bathroom for us to use so when guests come to visit, they will have their own bathroom. And since my son Beckett, visiting from Alaska is our first official guest, he got the honors of the first flush.And while he was here, Beckett lent a hand with one of our other projects. Getting the exterior walls ready for Stucco. Moving bricks and applying sticky stuff to make new mortar stick to old concrete. (More about this in the next post.)